Boston Bruins: Charlie Coyle will prove vital against the Edmonton Oilers

With Connor McDavid likely still out when the Boston Bruins face the Edmonton Oilers tonight; Charlie Coyle will be expected to play a key role.

No Connor McDavid means that Leon Draisaitl will be likely be matching it up with Patrcie Bergeron while Riley Sheahan faces David Krejci. That means that Charlie Coyle and the Boston bruins third line are likely getting an easier match-up against Gaetan Haas.

This is no slight against Gaetan Haas, but Charlie Coyle is a far superior center than him. The 28 year-old Swiss center is in his debut season with the Oilers and has just 10 points in his first 50 games.

Coyle on the other hand, has 33 points in 60 games this season and has been in great form of late with 4 goals in his last 5 games. An all-round strong option as the third line center for the Boston Bruins, Charlie Coyle does exactly what the Oilers wish they could afford from theirs.

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This season, he leads Haas by significant numbers not just on goals, assists and points, but also in his face-off winning percentage (47.8% compared to 42.2%), number of hits (78 to Haas’ 47) and takeaways (40 to 17).

Although much smaller margins, he outshines the cheaper Swiss option in shot-blocking too, though the difference there is marginal, in fact on a per game basis, Haas is actually the better player in this regard.

Charlie Coyle is trusted by the Boston Bruins with both power-play and penalty-killing time and sees significantly more ice, averaging 16:27 compared to the Edmonton center at just 09:37.

A lot of this is explained by the fact that the Oilers tend to ice Draisaitl and McDavid significantly more than any other center. In fact, looking at his counterparts in the line-up, Riley Sheahan is at 12:42 average ice-time, no doubt seeing a boost with McDavid out.

On the fourth line, although it seems that he may be used interchangeably with Haas, at least based on ice-time, is former Boston Bruins center Colby Cave averaging 10:22 a night.

Tonight’s game isn’t necessarily going to be determined by the top line; they may cancel each other out, especially with Draisaitl’s lethal form. Our second line hasn’t really been firing too much lately, so it’s on Charlie Coyle to make the difference.

He’s seemingly rediscovered his scoring ability and is no doubt flying high confidence-wise, especially with his great short-handed breakaway against the New York Rangers; tonight is his chance to continue this hot streak.

Almost a year to the day he was traded to the Boston Bruins, Charlie Coyle is still proving to be an amazing value trade pick-up.